Back to photography

[txhalfblood]

I have been reading over the forum and it looks like I have found the right place to get back into photography. So long to 5x7's. I used a Topcon SLR 35 back in the day. Good camera but the shutter made a loud thunk when it went off. I took an availble light shot once of Ben Varine (sp) during his act. Shot came out great and the hired photographer was mad when my shot was picked over his for publication.
I won a bet once holding the camera for a 1 sec. hand held shot, however, that was a few years back.
Anyway, my wife wanst to travel and I like to take shots of the area we are in. Might not get back that way again. We are going on a cruise to Italy later this year so I am getting set up. Camera, two lens, filters and soon a battery grip and a bag to carry it all.
I'll be checking out the rest of the forum to get some updating information.

[Greg McCary]

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy your new membership. Please take the time to say hello in the Welcome thread in View Finder. If you are looking to buy an Olympus product please feel free to ask as many questions as you like. If you have already made up your mind to go to Olympus, welcome abaord and please share your experiance and post a review of all your newly bought equipment.
Thanks again.

[Photo-John]

Welcome to the site. I assume you're posting on our Olympus forum because you're interested in an Olympus camera. We've got a bunch of Olympus users here. I've used a lot of the current Olympus digital SLR and compact cameras and am currently doing some long-term testing of the top-of-the-line Olympus E-3 digital SLR. It's a wonderful camera. The more I use it, the more I like it.

[txhalfblood]

I have an Olympus E-510 on order. I am taking my wife on a trip to Italy on October and hope to get some great memories to bring back. Not sure what all extra to take. I need to keep the bag size down, however, after our last cruise I will pack some rain gear.

[Greg McCary]

I have an Olympus E-510 on order. I am taking my wife on a trip to Italy on October and hope to get some great memories to bring back. Not sure what all extra to take. I need to keep the bag size down, however, after our last cruise I will pack some rain gear.

Congrats on the 510. Try and post a few shots of your trip here and let us know you have posted them. I would love to see them. Take plenty of CF cards and enjoy. And don't forget that converter so you can charge the battery.

[OlyOnly]

I have an Olympus E-510 on order. I am taking my wife on a trip to Italy on October and hope to get some great memories to bring back. Not sure what all extra to take. I need to keep the bag size down, however, after our last cruise I will pack some rain gear.

Hi, ditto on what Greg said, and if you didn't get the two lens kit, I can heartily recommend the new ED 40-150 f4-5.6. I have had some terrific results with it, even though I don't yet get enough time to do it justice. It's really sharp and will be great for some of the Italian mountains and valleys; the 300mm, effective, focal length can add a lot of drama to backdrops that would disappear into the background with a wider lens. Pretty nice for a lens the size of a 135mm on a 35mm camera, and lighter than most of those ever were. Unless you want to do more wildlife, birds and sports, you won't need anything longer.

You'll like the 510, too, although you may need top be a bit patient at first. This camera has a lot of opportunity for input, so you can have it your way, but it takes a bit of detective work to scout those tweak-ables. You might want to try what I did... go crazy on auto for the first couple hundred shots and forget everything else until you either hit a situation that auto won't handle to your satisfaction, or you think you might. Then it's time to take a spin through the menus and the book.

You may find the book to be a little less than forthcoming at first... sometimes the info you seek will be in more than one location and until you've already gotten there via menu and camera controls, sometimes the read can be a bit hard to comprehend (or is just my 67 years showing up??). As a back-up, visit http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/oly-e/e510-rev.html for some down to earthy, easy to understand info on the 510 from Andrzej Wrotniak, who's had his web site for 10 years or more. He knows his stuff and he knows us Oly users.

Finally, if you could hand hold a one second exposure at one time you may find you can still do it, or almost, anyway. The IS on the 510 is incredible; I've always had good luck with longer exposures than you're supposed to and this camera creates a new problem—this camera holds your frame so still that movement by your subject becomes an issue!! I've had good results down to 1/4 and 1/5 second; haven't needed longer yet. You'll find some exciting possibilities using your flash on "slow" mode in normal room light with kids and pets. Very natural light and some really nifty suggestion of movement takes some snapshots to a new level.

But enough for now. Enjoy!

[txhalfblood]

Thanks for the info. I am getting more that I thought I would get.
On my trip I plan to shoot people ( lots of wife to keep her happy), street activity, architecture, some landscape and interesting faces.